K-pop’s global explosion has brought with it a passionate fan culture where supporters don’t just stream music—they actively fund billboards in Times Square, subway ads, and digital displays to celebrate their favorite artists. But behind this enthusiasm lies a darker reality: most fan fundraising happens through private accounts run by individuals or fan cafe administrators, creating a breeding ground for embezzlement and opacity. 

For international fans unfamiliar with Korean banking systems, participating in these campaigns feels nearly impossible. And when things go wrong—like last-minute advertising rejections—there’s little recourse.

Hashpurple’s KDOL platform is changing that equation entirely. By marrying transparent crowdfunding with a thriving fandom community, KDOL lets fans anywhere contribute any amount to advertising campaigns while tracking every dollar from pledge to billboard. The results speak for themselves: over 400,000 downloads, break-even achieved in early 2025, and a user base that’s 70% international.

What makes KDOL different? It’s the only platform combining proprietary fandom communities with crowdfunding infrastructure. While competitors struggle with either missing features or user acquisition, Hashpurple leverages its ecosystem—the KDOL app, Trot Star app, and 750,000-strong Facebook presence—to keep costs low and success rates high. The platform’s credibility has grown beyond its user base: KDOL rankings regularly trend on Naver’s entertainment news, and outlets like KpopStarz and Netorabo cite their data as industry gospel.

Currently, Hashpurple is participating in the 2025 Tourism Global Challenge program, organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, and operated by CNTTech. Through IR mentoring and strategic consulting, they’re refining their global investment approach while exploring ways to transform their O4O service into K-pop fan tourism experiences in partnership with the Korea Tourism Organization.

So what’s the core problem you’re tackling?

K-pop fandom has this whole advertising culture, right? Fans pooling money to put up birthday ads or congratulatory messages for their idols. Sounds great in theory, but the reality is messy. Most of these campaigns run through someone’s personal bank account—maybe a fan cafe admin or just an enthusiastic individual. And that’s where things get dicey. We see embezzlement, funds disappearing, zero transparency about where the money actually goes.

For international fans, it’s even worse. They don’t have Korean bank accounts, don’t understand the local financial system, and are basically left out of the process. Even when they find a domestic agency to help, there’s no protection when unexpected審 issues pop up—like ads getting rejected at the last minute. The whole system needed a rebuild.

How does KDOL solve this?

We built KDOL as a transparent, secure O4O platform—Online for Offline. Any K-pop fan worldwide can jump in with even a small contribution. Everything’s visible: how much has been raised, how it’s being spent, when the ad goes live. You can track the entire journey from your phone.

What we’re really doing is giving fans agency. They’re not just throwing money into a black box anymore. They’re participating in something tangible, watching their collective effort turn into a real billboard in Times Square or a subway ad in Seoul. That transparency solves the trust issue, and the accessibility opens it up to the global fandom.

What makes you different from competitors? What’s your technical edge?

Here’s the thing—we’re the only platform that’s nailed both sides of this equation. We’ve got the fandom community and the crowdfunding infrastructure, all in-house. Our competitors? They’ve got one or the other, never both. Some have crowdfunding but no users. Others have communities but can’t monetize them.

We built our own ecosystem from scratch: the KDOL app, our Trot Star app, a Facebook presence with 750,000 followers. This isn’t just about having users—it’s about having engaged users who already trust us. That means we spend almost nothing on customer acquisition while competitors are burning cash on marketing. And because our community is already invested, our crowdfunding campaigns actually succeed.

Walk us through what KDOL actually does. Where are you now?

KDOL is a crowdfunding platform specifically for K-pop outdoor advertising. Fans propose an ad campaign—maybe it’s their bias’s birthday, maybe it’s celebrating a comeback. Once the funding goal is hit, we make it happen: Times Square, subway stations in Seoul, digital billboards in major cities worldwide.

We launched the app in October 2020, and we’ve crossed 400,000 downloads now. The scale has been honestly surprising, but it proves there was a massive unmet need in this space.

Who are you building this for, and how big is the opportunity?

Our primary market is the K-pop fandom advertising space—we estimate that at about 50 billion KRW. That’s a slice of Korea’s overall 3 trillion KRW outdoor advertising market.

But who are we actually serving? Every K-pop fan globally, but especially international fans who’ve been frustrated by the old closed-door fundraising system. These are people who want to participate but have been shut out. Right now, 70% of our users are outside Korea, which tells you everything about where the real demand is.

What’s your business model?

Pretty straightforward—we’re a platform commission model. When fans successfully crowdfund an ad campaign, we take a percentage of the total raised. That’s our core revenue stream.

We’re diversifying though. Right now we’re expanding into fandom event intermediation—think café rentals for fan meetups, that kind of thing. Longer term, we’re planning to launch an AI-powered generative content platform focused on web novels. That’s our next growth engine beyond O4O.

What have you accomplished so far?

Financially, we hit break-even in the first half of 2025. By August, we’d already blown past our entire 2024 revenue—solid growth trajectory.

Globally, we exported $145,000 worth of services in 2024, and again, 70% of our downloads are international users. We’re not just talking about going global—we’re already there. We’ve signed an MOU with Fanflare in the Philippines and we’re broadcasting on Home Radio there. Real partnerships, real presence.

The market recognition has been validating too. Our KDOL rankings hit Naver’s entertainment news weekly. International outlets like KpopStarz in the US and Netorabo in Japan cite our data regularly. We’ve become a trusted source in this ecosystem.

What makes your team competitive?

Execution. Full stop. We handle everything in-house—planning, development, operations, marketing. No outsourcing, no dependencies.

What’s really powerful is that our founding team, CEO included, all come from computer science backgrounds. We’re not hiring out our tech stack—we’re building it ourselves. That means stable development, sure, but it also means we can tackle future AI R&D projects without bringing in outside expertise.

And we’ve balanced that technical firepower with marketing folks who genuinely understand K-pop fandom culture. They’ve lived it, worked in it. So we’re not guessing what fans want—we know. That combination lets us move fast, pivot when needed, and do it all on a lean budget.

What are you doing to expand internationally, and what results have you seen?

We designed KDOL for global markets from day one. This wasn’t a “Korea first, then maybe international” strategy—it was always global.

The proof is in the numbers. 70% of our downloads come from outside Korea. We exported $145,000 in 2024 and we’re on track for $200,000 in 2025.

But it’s not just about revenue. International media outlets are citing KDOL data in their reporting. KpopStarz, Netorabo—these aren’t fringe blogs, they’re established outlets treating us as an authoritative source. That level of trust and recognition doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve earned credibility in the global market.

How is the Tourism Global Challenge helping with that expansion?

This program is sharpening our strategy. The IR mentoring and consulting have been invaluable—we’re getting expert guidance on structuring our pitch for global investors, understanding what different markets care about.

The connection with the Korea Tourism Organization is opening up really interesting possibilities too. We’re exploring ways to evolve KDOL beyond just advertising into actual K-pop fan tourism products. Imagine fans not just funding a billboard, but funding an experience—a tour, an event, something tangible they can participate in. That partnership could unlock a whole new business vertical for us.

Give us three reasons why investors should back you.

First—we’re past the validation stage. We’ve hit break-even, we’ve got 400,000+ downloads, our business model works and our market is real. This isn’t a bet on an unproven concept. Your investment accelerates what’s already working—expanding our global advertising inventory, ramping up marketing, scaling fast.

Second—AI is our next frontier. We’re launching R&D for a generative AI web novel platform. This isn’t just iterating on O4O—it’s creating an entirely new growth engine that could transform the fandom content market itself. The technical chops are already here; we just need fuel to build it.

Third—we’ve proven we can execute globally. 70% international users, real export numbers, media recognition across multiple countries. We’re not aspiring to go global—we’re already there. A proven team, a proven market, ready to scale. That’s what you’re investing in.